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Team Friendship's Adventures of The Little Engine That Could (1991)
Team Friendship's Adventures of The Little Engine That Could (1991) is a Thomas & Friends/MLP:FIM/EG/Universal Studios crossover film. It appeared as part of a double feature with Team Friendship's Adventures of The Little Engine That Could (2011). Plot The movie begins with a reveal of the cover to the book 's Adventures of The Little Engine That Could. The book opens to a picture of a house at sunset, and then the film transitions inside the pages to the interior of the house. In his bedroom, Eric, a young boy, is reading the book The Little Engine That Could itself. Tomorrow is his birthday, and having read the book he is excited at the prospect of receiving a visit from the story's birthday train full of toys. His older sister Jill teases him with "Birthday Train full of toys? I just can't believe you really believe in that." But Eric maintains faith that the train will come. The opening credits roll as the camera flies down from the house to the railroad, and then follows the tracks over the mountain through the night into the morning. On the other side is the railyard at the end of the line where everything is anthropomorphic. The control tower wakes up and calls out, "To work!" and the five sleeping engines in the roundhouse are introduced. There's a fancy red engine with a bonnet named Georgia, a rusty yellow engine named Jebediah, a large, coughing maroon engine named Pete, an even larger diesel engine named Farnsworth with a lustrous silver coat, and finally, there's Tillie, a little blue switcher and her birdfriend, Chip. . Tillie wakes up, and begins shunting the other engines while they build up steam (and in the case of the instant-start Farnsworth, seemingly because he is simply lazy). After Farnsworth and Pete have had their jobs assigned to them, Tillie (desperate to move beyond the confines of the yard) tries to sneak out with the milk-train in place of the rostered engine, the aged and sleeping Jebediah. The tower refuses, insisting she is too small for the job. Georgia, the only remaining engine, is assigned the birthday train, full of toys, presumably intended for Eric's birthday. Amid much fanfare, a clown named Rollo leads the other toys into the train, among them a Basketball Player named Stretch, a ballerina named Missy, a panda named Handy Pandy, an elephant named Perky, and a stuffed bird named 'Grumpella' (named after her attitude). As tears welled up in her eyes, Tillie watches sadly as Georgia leaves, realizing that if the tower is right, she'll never have an important train of her own ("I Wish I Were Big"). In the middle of the journey, Georgia starts to have boiler trouble. After swinging off the main track, her smoke stack explodes and she breaks down. Eventually, the green doctor engine 'Doc' comes having been alerted by smoke-signal, and decides to take her back to the roundhouse. Left behind, Rollo the clown eventually latches onto Doc's idea of flagging down one of the other engines returning from their daily runs over the mountain. However Farnsworth, the first engine to pass by, is very pompous, and refuses to pull them. He leaves, laughing at them through his air horn. Then Pete passes by. The tough freight engine is equally conceited, and also scoffs at the stranded toys. Back in the yard, Tillie once again asks for a chance to go out and rescue the stranded train, to which the tower refuses by yelling at her furiously, exaggerating that she could never, ever do it. Starlight Glimmer and Discord both have enough of the tower, shutting him up angrily and killing him with Starlight’s magic and dynamite. Everyone are very surprised and shocked about this and . ("Never Overlook a Little Engine"). In the meantime, Jebediah, the old and rusty engine, passes the toys. He would love to pull them, but having already made a round-trip over the mountain during the day does not have the strength to do so again. He apologizes to the toys, feeling sympathy for them. He also apologizes to Tillie when he gets back to the yard. Although she apparently understands his apology, Tillie realizes there are absolutely no engines left until Chip and the team remind her that there was still herself left. With the tower killed and gone for good, Tillie chuffs away to pull the train and the whole of Team Friendship went with her to help her. Having met the toys, she is seen with , chugging and charging up the mountain determinately chanting, "I think I can, I think I can", which leads into the film's signature song "Nothing Can Stop Us Now". Further up the mountain the weather worsens, the terrain becomes fiercer and the trains speed falls off as the grades steepen. Several animals, including a wolf and a bald eagle pass Tillie, and try to put her down by saying she's too little and can't do it. To all their taunts, she responds with a furious "I think I can!". Reaching an old trestle, the train crosses halfway before the river, swollen from the storm, sweeps a boulder into the piers, collapsing the trestle. One train car falls over the cliff, but fortunately, none of the living toys are lost. Making it up a final steep ascent, Tillie and the team reach the summit, but are confronted by a gigantic and scary-looking snowy cliff overhanging the rails; in attempting to pass, an avalanche buries the birthday train in snow, except Tillie and the team can't get out, and the avalanche is about to land on them all! Tillie and the whole entire Team of Friends all watch up in horror as the avalanche lands on them. There then follows a flashback of Bulbasaur's travels which show how, despite his initially distrusting nature, he became a valuable part of Ash's team as well as showing some of the adventures he's had on his journey and how close Ash and Bulbasaur are. There then follows a flashback of the team's travels so far with Ash Ketchum, and show how all the trains from Chuggington and the DigiDestined and their Digimon all became the very first members to join Team Equesodor, and later on more different characters all join the team and all became valuable parts of the team as well as showing some of the adventures they have had on their journeys with Ash Ketchum and his friends. We see some of the adventures they have had while traveling, as well reminding us of how close Thomas, are with Ash and Pikachu. In the middle of the night, Eric, the little boy, is woken up by the thunderstorm and seems to worry about Tillie and the birthday train. Eric's book is once again used to transition back into the narrative. The train is buried under a mound of snow, and Tillie and the whole of Team Friendship are shown to be unconscious, all not dead but alive. Tillie's heart-shaped firebox appears doused, but the coals suddenly glow as she breathes in air through her firebars. Regaining consciousness, Tillie finds Chip passed out on her headlight, and nudges him awake. They hug, and . Tillie decides to give it one more try. Using her cowcatcher as a snowplow and with a feat of strength from the whole of , she successfully pulls the train out of the snow and down the mountain. The toys and the team cheerfully sing along the way, and they finally reach the town. Eric sees them, and shows his sister Jill that the train did come after all, although in narrative terms the train arrived a day late. The film ends with Tillie, who although very tired from her long and adventurous journey over the mountain, is proud and happy, blowing her whistle in joy after she proclaims to Chip and to , that "Yes I did it! And it was worth it!" The whistle signals all the children in the town, including Eric, to come out towards the train. . Trivia * are guest starring in this film. * Tillie and Chip officially joined Team Friendship and come to live on the Island of Sodor with them and work on the Fat Controller's railway at the end of this film. * Events from are mentioned. * are mentioned in this film. * This film directly ties into [[Team Friendship's Adventures of The Little Engine That Could (2011)|''Team Friendship's Adventures of The Little Engine That Could (2011)]] in which . * An instrumental of You Can Do It (If You Really Try) is used as the background music in our heroes' flashback montage. Music score * The Mountain's Path (while it plays throughout the opening credits) () * The Storm Theme S3-4 (from ''Thomas and Friends) () * You Can Do It (If You Really Try) (instrumental version from Bulbasaur... The Ambassador) () Scenes Category:Thomas & Friends/MLP:FIM/EG/Universal Pictures crossovers‏‎